History Of The Aramaic Old Testament

This series of web pages provides free lessons on the Aramaic Old Testament or Peshitta Tanakh.

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In the lesson What Is The Aramaic Old Testament? we saw that the Aramaic Old Testament or Peshitta Tanakh is a translation of the Hebrew Tanakh into Syriac, an Eastern dialect of Aramaic.

Although the early history of the Aramaic Old Testament is open to some historical interpretation, the following paragraphs provide the most likely history of the Aramaic Old Testament. This account tries to harmonize the known facts as simply as possible.

Once Jews were exiled to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, Aramaic increasingly became the spoken language among Jews and others across the Middle East. Aramaic is a different language to Hebrew, but its close affinity with Hebrew meant that there would be little resistance among Jews to speaking it. Aramaic is already present in the Torah, Neviim and Ketuvim (the three major divisions of the Hebrew Tanakh) and Jews have always had exposure to it.

As time went on, therefore, Jews after the exile started to translate the Hebrew Tanakh into Aramaic. Since the Aramaic Old Testament is in Syriac (an eastern dialect of Aramaic) and is much more homogeneous than the Targums, it seems highly probable that the translation was done in the East while there were still significant numbers of Jews who had not returned after the exile. The Aramaic Old Testament or Peshitta Tanakh therefore dates to several centuries B.C.E.

As the Jewish population in the Land of Israel increased and Jerusalem again became the main centre of Jewish worship and culture, the Targums were produced (separately, according to need) and used mainly in Israel. Thus, the Aramaic Old Testament was probably used mainly by Jews in the East, while the Targums were used mainly by Jews in Israel.

When Christianity came on the scene, this distinction probably became more pronounced. The early Christian/Jewish believers spoke Aramaic, and they seem to have adopted the Aramaic Old Testament (rather than the Targums) as their preferred translation. There were probably several important reasons for this:

The Peshitta (Aramaic New Testament) was also in Syriac (the Eastern dialect of Aramaic) and therefore it made sense to adopt a translation of the Hebrew Tanakh with the same dialect, rather than the Targums.
Edessa (a Syriac-speaking area) was an important stronghold for the early Jewish and other converts to Christianity, with the king of Edessa converting to Christianity soon after the death of Yeshua. Again, adopting the Peshitta Tanakh (rather than the Targums) made sense since it was closest to their dialect of Aramaic.
Yeshua spoke with a characteristic Galilean Aramaic dialect, and the evidence is that, being much further north than Jerusalem and closer to Edessa, this was close to the Eastern dialect of Aramaic.

As time went on, then, the Aramaic Old Testament or Peshitta Tanakh became inextricably associated with the early Christian believers and adopted by them, in preference to the Targums. It was probably precisely because the early Christians adopted the Peshitta Tanakh that the Jews clung to the Targums as their 'official' translations of the Hebrew Tanakh. Christian Churches of the East have used the Aramaic Old Testament ever since, and still use this Syriac translation in liturgy to this very day.

It is important to make a distinction between when the Aramaic Old Testament was first translated, and when it subsequently became adopted by the early Christian believers. Like the Targums, the historical evidence is that the Peshitta Tanakh was translated several centuries B.C.E., and preserved through the days of Yeshua, and still used by the Churches of the East to this very day. However, the fact that the Peshitta Tanakh was adopted by the early Christians does not mean it was translated only in the Christian era.

Home | Aramaic Old Testament | Introduction | History Of The Aramaic Old Testament